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discovered_01_2016 - When Uranium Responds to Laser Pulses

WWW.HZDR.DE discovered 01.16 TITLE Hanford in the US State of Washington is one of the most radioactively contaminated places in the world. For around 50 years, the Americans operated nuclear reactors on the high-security site there and produced plutonium for atomic weapons. The last reactor was shut down in 1989. Since then, enormous cleanup efforts have been underway, including decontaminating the extensive grounds. One particularly sensitive aspect are the underground tanks storing many tons of liquid waste from plutonium extraction, which have started showing signs of corrosion. Uranium, plutonium and other radionuclides have already found their way into the earth. Measurements revealed that uranium, in particular, had spread out over a wide area while plutonium and curium only tended to occur in the vicinity of the tanks. Why this is the case is explained by Gerhard Geipel from the Institute of Resource Ecology at HZDR: "Uranium oxidizes in the earth and turns into calcium uranyl carbonate. Uranium in this form is highly-soluble and can easily be transported. Plutonium and curium, on the other hand, occur as compounds which tend to be associated with solid surfaces." Species analysis is the key term behind these insights. And when it comes to the species analysis of radionuclides, // Fluorescence spectroscopy reveals how radionuclides behave in soils and water. _TEXT . Uta Bilow WHEN URANIUM RESPONDS TO LASER PULSES EXPERT: With this equipment Gerhard Geipel can capture the characteristic fluorescence at room temperature in less than 100 nanoseconds. Photo: Oliver Killig

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